Ch1: Personal Flight Crafts

By: Maharanjoni

It has been three years and for the life of me I couldn't think why we hadn't spoken. But the fact was that we hadn't and I was regretting every second of those thirty-six months. On the outside of course I was ignoring him. I was still angry with him. Why? Good question. I don't think it quite mattered anymore. And so the days went by, each of us pretending the other didn't exist.

I knew he was on the station. I don't think he knew I was there, but I could sense him. I could feel his presence in the very blood that ran through my veins, blood that we shared.

My brother, Peter, and I had, since childhood, been closer than close. He had always included me in the schemes he and his friends thought up and I had always let him know of any new secret passageway or special thing I had found in my explorations. I think the day it all went wrong was the day that I realized I was not the person he wanted me to be. He was my older brother and as such he had always had high hopes for his little sister. He had been particularly shocked and angered when on the eve of my betrothal to Lord Tanoan I handed my conscription in for the Space Force.

Peter had even been mad enough to petition my father for a pardon, which my father had been more than willing to give. But I had to be willing to accept it, I wasn't.

No one was going to make a trophy wife out of Rane DeMure. I still shivered at the thought of those pampered, gossipy women sitting on a sofa in a comfortable mansion talking about how so-and-so was not being discreet. Some things were more important.

I smiled to myself at the memory of the look on Lord Tanoan's face when he had found out. Its not that I didn't like the man its just that I, well. didn't want to marry him. He had always seemed so fake to me, like he was hiding his true nature. And I thought that one day his true colors would show and they would not be pleasant.

"Hey, Rane! Stop daydreaming! We need your help over here!" The voice of SSgt. Holmes ripped through my reminiscing. All too happy to be distracted from the problems of my past life I took to the job at hand with enthusiasm:

"Tell me why do I have to do this again, Sarge?" I complained piteously as we scouted out the desolate planet for any signs of life.

"Because we don't want any unpleasant surprises. - And don't tell me that we've never had proof of an alien life form." He said holding up a finger in his suit to stall my protests. "It never hurts to be careful, besides we have to give these suits a practical demonstration don't we?" So we scanned the planet up and down and then down and up and never found a trace of anything. I normally would have enjoyed saying 'I told you so' but Sarge would have made me do KP duty for the rest of the month.

So when the evening meal came I tried to hold my tongue - not something I was ever good at - even back at my father's court. Luckily Kat, my roommate, came to sit next to me in the Mess Hall, and saved me. She was one of the ship's top engineers and she kept it running smoothly.

"Wow!! I saw you guys going out of the ship in those new suits!! Its amazing how majestic they were!! Oh, I bet it was fun, was it fun, Rane?" The ship had just gotten state-of-the-art space suits that were like a suit and a ship in one, they were calling them "Personal Flight Crafts". I called them expensive. I remembered the struggle I had to go through to be able to use one. The Captain had gotten a call from the King himself saying that it was imperative that he not let me anywhere near the suits. He didn't want his 'precious' daughter being involved in the testing of those 'Damn death traps'. The Captain had called me up to his office to have a little chat (By request he was the only one who knew that I was even remotely related to the Royal family). In the end I had a little scream at my father for interfering with my private life and everything had worked out fine.

"Umm. Rane? Terra to Rane!! Hello???" A hand waving in front of my face distracted me from my thoughts. "Grrr. I hate it when you do this! Just gazing to space."

". sorry, Kat I was just thinking." I said realizing that we weren't the only ones at the table anymore. The rest of the men and women in my platoon had joined us and I smiled at each one in turn. "What was the question again?" I asked smiling sweetly so she wouldn't punch my face off. She made a disgusted sound in her throat and a disgruntled "Never mind".

"Hey, what's up with you lately, Rane? Ever since we docked with Hiephong you've been acting strange. Nothings wrong, right?" Asked Gerg, my significant other, looking concerned.

"Yeah, are you on PMS or something?" asked Stephen who, wise man, ducked.

"I'm fine, I just haven't been sleeping well lately. Something about this station is getting to me, the sooner we leave the better." I said after glaring in Stephen's general direction. I was not including the fact that the closeness to my brother was making me edgy. No one had to know I had a brother or that I had this freaky connection with him that drove me to distraction.

"Yeah, I know what you mean. They say that this place is haunted." Stephen said in a mysterious voice. When he got nothing but glares he apologized. "Jeeze. just joking."

"Well, I hope you feel better, Rane." Said Mina, our platoon's medic "If you don't then come to me and I'll see what I can fix you for that sleeping problem."

"Thanks tons, Mina, if this continues I might have to take you up on that." I said smiling up at the tall woman as she put away her tray.

"So, are you coming shopping with us tomorrow? We have the whole day off and they say that Peter DeMure is going to hold a celebration that night in Quadrant B." luckly no one noticed me flinching at my brother's name. "You have to come! Please say you're coming!" Kat pleaded. It was like being back in high school again where everybody who was anybody was going to be there.

"Kat, you know I really don't like parties, besides what is he celebrating anyway? Its just an excuse to get drunk." I said trying to dissuade her from making me go. I knew Peter would be there, since it was his party. I did not want to see him, besides like I said, I hated parties.

"And your problem is.?" she asked expectantly "Oh, it'll be fun! We can get you a dress, because I know you don't have any. And while were at it we can." Her voice seemed to blend in with the indistinct sounds of the Mess Hall as I sighed in despair and finished my lunch, barley tasting anything.

(A/N: I'd just like to say that all characters and ideas in this story belong to me if you think otherwise or you want to borrow them email me and I'll get back to you. Please R&R if you want to read more. If NO ONE reviews then I'm not going to continue the story. So pleeeeeaaaassseee review ^_^)